Too Many, Too Fast?

With the recent faux pas of the Windows 10 1809 release, there have been a bevy of cries for Microsoft to move to a single release per year. Are two releases per year too many, too fast? I say no!

Prior to Windows 10, new versions of the Windows desktop OS were released roughly every three to five years. Access to pre-release versions (beta) was very limited. You had to wait to gain access to begin testing. As most of us “old timers” know, you never installed the latest version anywhere in production. This was because it generally had several bugs. Any desktop engineer worth his or her salt, would wait until Service Pack 1 came out. This usually took about a year. This meant four to six years before access to new features. Four to six years for security improvements. More potential vulnerabilities to be exploited.

Now let’s keep in mind this was in the old days when Microsoft had a larger (internal) QA team.

If you did test soon after release and encountered a major issue, you had to open a case with Premier Support to get a fix before the Service Pack was released. Consumers were not so lucky.

If you wanted a new feature, there was always User Voice or TechNet forums to post to and hope for the best. Sometimes they would make it the Service Pack, sometimes you would have to wait for the next OS version.

With Windows 10, Microsoft has gathered the largest QA team possible: Windows Insiders. The goal is to obtain a larger cross-section of devices and configurations to uncover potential issues BEFORE the OS goes to General Availability. This volunteer army of Windows “Ninja Cats” not only work to reduce bugs, but provide feedback on newly added features, or even make suggestions on things they would like to see. All of this is done via the Feedback Hub.

Enterprise IT Pros are not left out as there is also a Windows Insider Program for Business. This is designed to help desktop engineers deploy, manage, and validate Windows 10 pre-release builds inside the organization.

Is the current system perfect? No. Do bugs still slip through? Yes. The key to all of this is how quickly things are resolved. Fail fast, recover quickly. Move forward. Yes, I’m talking DevOps.

Windows as a Service and the Windows Insider programs are constantly evolving. There are some key things we can do as consumers to help. First, join the Windows Insider and Windows Insider for Business programs. Second, be active. This means not only in the testing of Windows flights (builds), but within the community as well. You can do this by joining the Microsoft Tech Community. Third, leave feedback in the Feedback Hub. Make sure it is quality feedback and not “My Microsoft is broken”. Take time to gather details, error messages, screenshots, and other diagnostic data.

Does Microsoft have room for improvement? Absolutely! I look at it this way. If you are not helping, you are part of the problem. If you have good ideas, share them!